What Does Being Healthy Really Mean?
A Clear Line in the Sand in a Culture Obsessed With “Acceptance”. In a world where tolerance, inclusion, and acceptance are rightly emphasized in social and cultural discourse, we’ve unfortunately blurred a crucial line:
Acceptance of people ≠ acceptance of every behavior as “healthy.” When it comes to human health — a measurable, biological reality — we can’t let feel-good platitudes overwrite physical facts.
So let’s define what actually being healthy is — clearly, honestly, and without deception.
1. Health Is Not a Feeling — It’s a State With Measurable Consequences
Social media, influencers, and wellness culture often suggest health is whatever makes you feel good:
“As long as you feel good, you’re healthy.”
“You can be healthy at any size.”
“Body positivity = health.”
But health in the biological sense has clear associations with outcomes that impact longevity and quality of life.
For example, excess body fat beyond healthy ranges is not just cosmetic — it’s linked to serious disease:
Heart disease
Type 2 diabetes
Certain cancers
Hormonal imbalance
Reduced mobility
Sleep issues like sleep apnea
These aren’t opinions — these are documented risks that increase with body fat above the healthy thresholds you’ve shared.
Those ranges — like ~14–20% body fat for athletic women or ~6–13% for athletic men, with obesity thresholds above ~32% for women and ~25% for men — aren’t arbitrary. They reflect levels where disease risk climbs.
2. Being “Comfortable” Isn’t the Same as Being Healthy
Our culture often equates comfort or acceptance of all lifestyles with health — as if anything goes so long as you don’t judge others. But acceptance of people doesn’t mean ignoring health realities:
You can be comfortable with your habits and still live with high disease risk.
You can love your lifestyle and still have cardiovascular strain, insulin resistance, inflammation, or joint degeneration.
You can feel okay today and still be on a path toward chronic health issues tomorrow.
Health isn’t defined by feelings or comfort.
It’s defined by function, resilience, and risk.
3. Healthy Isn’t a Body Type — It’s a Functioning Body
Let’s be clear about something many people confuse:
Health ≠ a look.
Health ≠ an aesthetic.
Health ≠ a fashion trend.
Being healthy means your body systems are functioning optimally:
✔️ Your metabolism handles glucose properly.
✔️ Your heart and lungs are efficient and strong.
✔️ Your joints and muscles support movement without pain or limitation.
✔️ Your hormones are balanced enough to support day-to-day life.
✔️ Your risk of chronic disease is minimized — not maximized.
This doesn’t mean every single person needs to be a bodybuilder.
It means the body’s internal systems operate in ways that support life, mobility, and resilience.
4. Culture Tells You All Bodies Are Equal, But Biology Still Has Lines
We believe deeply in human dignity and respect for every individual — absolutely.
But dignity and respect are not the same as redefining biology.
You can respect a person and still say:
Carrying chronic inflammation and excess adiposity is not healthy.
Poor metabolic health increases disease risk.
Physical inactivity is linked to early mortality.
Unregulated blood sugar is not a marker of good health.
These aren’t moral judgments — they are biological realities.
Health has markers, and those markers impact longevity and quality of life.
If you ignore those, you’re not kind to yourself — you’re being ignorant of consequences.
5. Healthy Is More Than Appearance — It’s What Your Body Can Do
Some people look “fine” on the outside but suffer internally:
They get winded walking up stairs.
They wake up sore and fatigued.
They have creeping blood pressure or sugar challenges.
They’re taking medications for preventable conditions.
Contrast that with someone who:
Moves pain-free throughout the day.
Has energy in the afternoon.
Sleeps deeply.
Maintains strength and mobility with age.
One is living with limitations.
One is living with capacity.
That’s the real line in the sand.
6. Health Has Costs — But So Does Not Being Healthy
Our culture has become obsessed with neutral language around behavior:
“I prioritize comfort.”
“Food freedom is health.”
“All eating patterns are equal.”
But choices have physiological consequences.
What you do today affects:
Your cardiovascular risk decades later
Your mobility in middle age
Your hormone balance
Your energy and cognitive function
Your immune resilience
Ignoring these is not self-care — it’s self-deception.
True health requires choice, effort, and responsibility.
7. Stop Obscuring Health With Feel-Good Messaging
Too much fitness messaging today focuses on:
✨ You’re perfect just the way you are.
✨ Health at every size.
✨ You define your own health.
Those messages feel good — but they also dilute the functional meaning of health.
There is a difference between:
Self-acceptance — which is emotionally important
andBiological health — which is medically and scientifically grounded
You can — and should — have both:
Accept and respect yourself AND commit to improving your biological health
Personal responsibility and self-love are not enemies — they’re allies.
8. Here’s the Bottom Line
Healthy means your body:
Is strong enough to move without pain
Has metabolic markers within healthy ranges
Has body composition that supports disease prevention
Sleeps well
Has cardiovascular capacity
Has functional strength
Can adapt and recover from stress
It is not:
❌ Just “feeling okay”
❌ “Compared to other people”
❌ A social narrative
❌ A trend or hashtag
Health is measurable, real, and consequential.
Culture can celebrate inclusion, individuality, and acceptance of identity — and it should.
But when we talk about health, we must not let comfort override clarity, truth, and biology.
Being healthy isn’t about aesthetics.
It’s about living a life with capacity, longevity, and resilience.
And that’s a standard worth defending — not diluting.
-Coach Tanner